What's up with those leads groups?
One of the attendees of my latest Bi-Weekly Marketing Plan Group asked me this question as we were getting started last week:
Q: Do you think groups like Business Networking International are good venues for networking?
A: I think it's worth checking out because BNI (and many networking organizations like them) have multiple groups around the country and around the world. And every group is different. So the value of BNI depends in large part on who's in each group. (It also depends largely on how actively you contribute to the group.)
In general, the way to think about the question is, "Will I meet my prospects there?" or, in the case of a leads group like BNI, "Will the people in the group be good referral sources for me? Do they come into contact with my prospects?"
For this you have to have a chosen a market, which is the topic of the first in our webinar series, Grow Your Business From Your Desktop, this Thursday, Sept. 27. More info and sign up for Get Rich in a Niche here.
Another question to ask is whether or not you'd get the same quality leads by going to BNI as you'd get from another networking organization--or from direct outreach like cold-calling. Just because you're guaranteed to come into contact with paying customers doesn't mean those are necessarily your ideal customers. Particularly if you've created a good niche for yourself.
Posted by: Kelly Parkinson | October 01, 2007 at 12:31 PM